Product Description

Ostensibly written by an English knight, the Travels purport to relate his experiences in the Holy Land, Egypt, India and China. Mandeville claims to have served in the Great Khan’s army, and to have travelled in ‘the lands beyond’ – countries populated by dog-headed men, cannibals, Amazons and Pygmies. Although Marco Polo’s slightly earlier narrative ultimately proved more factually accurate, Mandeville’s was widely known, used by Columbus, Leonardo da Vinci and Martin Frobisher, and inspiring writers as diverse as Swift, Defoe and Coleridge. This intriguing blend of fact, exaggeration and absurdity offers both fascinating insight into and subtle criticism of fourteenth-century conceptions of the world.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #88031 in Books
• Published on: 2005-03-31
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 224 pages

About the Author
Sir John Mandeville left his native St Albans in 1322 and died in Liege in 1372.

Customer Reviews

Classic Medieval Travelogue
Mandeville's 'Travels' was a medieval best-seller, a fiction of a guide to the world beyond our shores. He conjures up fantastical beasts and societies no one had ever seen, a product of his fertile imagination rather than of any garnered intelligence or experience of travel. Anyone wanting to understand the medieval mind, and its fear that the world beyond the next hill might be a terrifying place, should read Mandeville; as should anyone wanting to write fantasy.

Travel before travel
I cannot hide my bias about this book; it is my absolute favourite. One of the major differences between ourselves and the Medieval World was the notion of the East and the concept of otherness. The World Sir John Mandeville chronicled was the World we see on antique maps, there is scant regard for topographical accuracy but a wonderful mixture of beasts and monsters. There is controversy as to whether this 'Knight' ever ventured anywhere, some even believe that the name itself is made up. All these issues add to the mystery and sense of adventure in what must be one of the World's first travel books.
In our 'Age of Reason' we try to explain everything using rational methods and scientific experiment, this book succeeds in doing the opposite. We are introduced to unknown exotica with wonderfully descriptive prose, without our technical vocabulary and jargon the foreign lands and peoples really come to life. Once you have read this book you can enter into the debate as to who this mysterious man was and if he did exist... then where did he actually go? If you reach this stage then you need to get a copy of Giles Milton's 'Riddle and the Knight'.

Course Study
A very enoyable read. Althoug bought for course study, this book turned out to be a gem of enertainment - all travel literature should be like this.